


Planet Earth is Blue

by P_DOT_BOT_3000, tanzytechgem



Category: 17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future - Jon Bois
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, space
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2018-12-27 11:01:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 6,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12079740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/P_DOT_BOT_3000/pseuds/P_DOT_BOT_3000, https://archiveofourown.org/users/tanzytechgem/pseuds/tanzytechgem
Summary: Something is terribly wrong.





	1. LOADING...

**JANUARY 17, YEAR 2844**

  
  


**JUPITER ICY MOONS EXPLORER ONLINE**

 

**SERVICE UNAVAILABLE**

 

**CONNECTION TIMED OUT**

 

**SOURCE LOST. TRY AGAIN**

 

**CONNECTION ATTEMPT ESTABLISHING**

 

.

.

.

 

A loud static of radio  _ buzzed _ . The sound wouldn't stop it didn't stop it just got louder and louder _ andlouderand _ **louder** **_AND_ ** **_LOUDER_ **

 

**AND**

 

_ and _

 

One of the sleeping team members groaned and covered their ears with their hands, still half-asleep and blindly turning over in their seat. One of their hands grazed the tip of the frequency tuners on the radio. 

  
  


A few static filled moments passed, the person drifting, falling back into the thick sheet of sleep covering the scientists’ base. 

 

The world seemed to hold its breath as the static warbled into something coherent. 

.

.

.

.

JUICE’s voice cut through on the small radio located on Earth, ESA headquarters. The place was a disaster, it had turned into a messy space a while ago for about 7 members of the now-old space launch team. One of the sleeping scientists shot up at the sound of an artificial,--but lifelike voice. 

 

_ “Hello? What’s going on here? Everything is...broken, damaged….where am I supposed to be? Can someone help me?” _


	2. CONNECTION ESTABLISHED

The man blinked in disbelief. He had stayed at the headquarters after all these years doing research about space and the planets, but this? This... this was something unprecedented and completely unexpected. 

 

As he sat upright, he dusted the crumbs off of his shirt and shook his co-worker awake. “Chloe! C’mon, wake up wake up, look!” 

 

He excitedly set his computer screen to overview mode, the radio frequency and other statistics showing up on the overhead. A few blinking words appeared at the corner of the screen, showing devices connected to the frequency. 

 

Chloe groggily sat up and peered at the display. It took a minute, but the moment she noticed what he was trying to point out, she immediately perked up. “What the fuck, Matthew? This is a prank, right?”

 

“There's no faking that kind of range! That's like, 500 million miles away… wow… wait. Do you know what this means?” 

 

She contemplated for a moment, then spoke again. “No, it can't be aliens. We disproved that thousands of years ago. What's the location? Can you find the origin?” Her coffee was cold, but that didn't stop her from drinking it.

 

“No, Chloe..’re you fucking serious? You dumbass, it says right there on display. Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer. Right now, it’s about 540 million miles away.” He points to the corner, where it's labeled.

 

“The one launched from French Guiana in 2022?? Whoa, that’s so long ago.”

 

“Yeah, that's the one. I remember them calling it Juice a lot. It was pretty funny. Well, are we gonna respond? It almost looks like some kind of distress signal.”

 

“Well..shit. I guess we have to. But what’s the distress signal from? Can you pull up a transcript of it? Was it a magnetometer malfunction?” She speaks rapidly, trying to figure it out.

“No, no..this time it’s different? I think it had a voice?”

 

She chokes on her stale coffee. “Whoa, what? Are you finally out of your mind?? C’mon, old man, quit the fantasy and pull up the transcript already!” Chloe chuckles and lightly punches him in the shoulder.

 

“Chlo I’m being very serious right now. Here, lemme adjust the frequency juuuust right..” 

 

The radio soon crackled and buzzed, a distant, but now--louder voice coming through. 

_ “Please...Is anyone there? I've been look-” Static sounds again, then it cuts back in,”-just when you get anything, please please help. This is very important and-” The radio crackles loudly again. _

 

**“-Something is terribly wrong.”**


	3. Who, What, When, Where, and Why?

The other members of the crew also started to slowly wake up, the frantic voice echoing around them. 

 

“Hello? Please, this is the first time this has happened. I don’t know where I am. I don't know what's going on. I'm all alone, please respond.” The voice spoke in a panic, it had a slight metallic ring to it. They sounded like they were hyperventilating.

Another scientist, Kelly, spoke up.”When did we first receive contact? I need to make a record.”

 

“Who's that?? Who are you? Where are you? Are you going to save me?” The voice got a little higher, desperately grasping for hope. 

 

Chloe responded. “We will try and help you. Do you know your name?”

 

“I uhmm...shit I don’t know. I know I’m on the orbit of Jupiter, I don’t know how I got this far out. Who am I? Do you know?” 

 

“It’s going to be okay. Just stay a little bit calmer. We need to figure this out, give us a moment.” Kelly reassured them. She was speedily typing everything that the lost voice was saying, along with the time. 

 

The room full of the scientists murmured amongst themselves, after turning off the mic on the radio. They already started working on trying to make a stronger internet and radio connection, they HAD to figure out what went wrong. This was the first bit of excitement, and adrenaline running, ever since the Mystery of 2781 had happened. 

 

Chloe turned the mic back on, immediately hearing a mechanical gasp and a focus on the static sound. 

 

“You're back! You're-” the audio goes to static again for a moment,”-I'm so happy! ..have you figured anything out?”

 

“Hmm, not quite yet. That’s a bit of a jump to suddenly have a plan, especially after years of no scientific discovery. Explorer, do you know your exact coordinates? We can’t seem to get a grasp on it. Your connection to the DSN might have been terminated due to other traffic.” Chloe asked. 

 

“Did you just call me Explorer? Was I an explorer? How am I stuck on the..uhm-- Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer? Did it even have a control room? Were people even allowed on it? God..I’m so scared. How did I not run out of oxygen by now? Wait, fuck what's the DSN?” JUICE seemed to fire question after question out of a void of never ending inquiries. They breathed heavily, trying their best to try to gather their thoughts. 

 

“Please, answer our question fir-” Kelly cut off abruptly, her brows furrowing in the--now contagious confusion. She picked up again, trying to make sense of all this. “Explorer, what do you mean? Can you please clarify by what you mean of..’How were you stuck on JUICE’? There...there were no humans sent to Jupiter who had survived…” Her voice raised, quickly looking up the history of all the space missions in 2022.  

 

“I don't know! I'm so confused! This is the first time this has happen...wait. What. What do you- What?? No... Are you-.. Are you saying I'm dead or that I’m not human? I don't think...No, no no no no. You’ve got it all wrong. You’ve certainly got it wrong!! I….how else would I have ended up here? Wh-what do you mean??” Static leaks into the transmission, almost drowning out their own voice when they began to panic.

 

The group of people looked at each other with increasing concern.

 

_ How did this satellite gain sentience in the first place? How long was it reactivated? Did it reactivated by itself, did something hit it to make it boot up maybe? Was some other civilization out there?  _

 

There were so many questions in the air for both the scientists and the probe, and so much time to try and figure them out. But there was a sense of urgency in the machinery’s tone, they just...didn’t understand. 

 

_AI’s had gotten far, but not this far. The people working on them grew bored or could never find the solution to some other problem, and with no new people, there_ was _no new ideas, none of that spark of a new mind. This whole situation is new, brand new. Nobody knows what's going on, not even the voice on the radio._

 

“I-I-...I don’t even know what I’m saying, everything’s so..ughhh it’s so confusing! What even am I, then?? Do you know my name?? You act like you know my name but you won’t even tell me! You didn’t tell me who you are, where you are, WHERE THE HELL AM I?” he screamed in agony, frustration, and overall, fear. Rapid, shuddering, mechanic breaths filled the sound of the radio and the room. The static had stopped, all was utterly silent in despair. 

.

.

.

.

The room was deathly silent, the air thick with dread and worry. 

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

**What is going on?**


	4. ERROR, [REDACTED] COULD NOT BE LOCATED

“I really hope that they can figure something out.” Juice talks to himself, alone again for a moment. He's been talking and not paying attention to himself for long enough that he had forgotten all the error messages. Lights and alerts and noises went off constantly, driving him to try and find some way of stopping them.

 

Everything feels so wrong, but he doesn't know how it should feel. So many things swarm in his mind, flooding it with so much noise, it was just loud, loud, LOUD. It made the back of his head buzz with an unnerving pain, like it was a reminder that...

 

Something is terribly wrong.

 

“My feelings..hurt? I guess? Is that what hurt feels like?” He talks to himself again, trying to distract. How long had he been in cryosleep to forget what everything feels like? Would..would sleeping too long do that to someone? 

 

“Could it do that to my brain? Don’t people like me have limbs though? What happened to those? I don’t feel….pain I guess? I don’t feel like I’m missing a body part either. Organs, lungs, stomach, arms, legs, kidneys..” His mind buzzes again, the static and noise picking up again.

 

_ ”Heart. My heart. Is my heart hurting? Heart like figuratively or literally? How can I check my own pulse without hands? WHERE ARE MY HANDS?” _ The breathing picked up again, but it's not right. It doesn't sound like the humans he heard back in the room. 

 

_Why isn't it right?_

 

 

”What’s wrong with me? Myself? Self...self..Who AM I? Fucking...I should know my own name. Do I give myself a name?? Who am I supposed to be? What if I was born on this goddamn space probe, left to wither out, alone. Am I an experiment? Is that just-just all I am?? Just a fucking useless person with no limbs, a broken heart, just as an experiment, just like a-a..an ANIMAL??” 

 

**He is overrun by static.**

 

_ Static, static, static. Filling everything, it’s all of everything. Thick and clinging to every part of every bit of my mind. I can’t escape it. _

 

_ it’s so loud, I can’t think I can’t think  _

 

_**i cant think icantthink I CAN’T-** _

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

 

BATTERY OVERHEATED

 

**EMERGENCY SHUT-DOWN**


	5. Wednesday, Year 2844. 8:27AM.

“Wait, guys, where did the connection go?” Chloe exclaimed, panic in her tone, seeing the little yellow text go away.

 

Kelly typed furiously on her keyboard, popups immediately appearing and analyzing the situation. “The connection is unstable, it seems to have overloaded.” 

 

“We should probably give it time. Yeah, it probably needs time to process this all.” Matthew breathed out, hand on his head. “Is it an it? Is it a they? He? Is it even alive? Shoot, I don't think it knows that either, actually.” He sighed. 

 

 “We should worry about more important things, like what’s malfunctioning in the probe. Have we detected any signs of virus or bug? Any burnt out wires, overheated engines?” Chloe piped up, listing the possibilities on her hands. 

 

Kelly listened to all the things she listed. “I think it was an overheat. The hardware seemed to have been malfunctioning for a while. Might've been an asteroid or some other foreign object.”

 

“Hey, uh… guys come look at this.” Matthew breathed out, baffled. He waved everyone over to his computer screen, pointing out the surprisingly big, yet hard to catch, difference in the coding. The programming itself looked...foreign and yet so familiar. Evolved.

 

“I was checking the code while Kelly was making logs, and got a screenshot, and uh, that's not code I’ve ever seen. I've worked on a lot of missions and none of them looked like that.” Matthew murmured, just loud enough for everyone gathered around to hear.

 

“It's like it has absorbed all the data that Earth’s been broadcasting and just did that. How? I have no clue.” Chloe sighed, and sat back down. “Kell, can you try sending a message to it again? Anything to try and help it?”

 

“I'm not receiving anything at all. It's shut down, probably for a while. We’re playing the waiting game now.” 

 

.

.

.

 

A few days passed. Nothing but random sparks of electricity coming from the probe, no other signals of life resonating. The scientists were all busy making theories and reviewing the old blueprints of the satellite. The quiet workspace was interrupted by the loud sound of JUICE powering back up, as the probe had left the radio on while shut-down. The radio buzzed back to life, static filling the air. 

 

.

.

 

.hdskjdnf,ds

.aughh my head

.What happened?? Am I okay? 

 

.

.

.

{Hello JUICE, are you not strong enough to talk yet? It’s okay if you can just type here too. We want to make sure what you’re comfortable with.} 

.

.

.Uhm, yeah, I guess I’m not feeling too good right now. I can type here. But can you please answer my question of what happened?? I’m confused, everything disappeared again, this wasn’t the first time this happened.

.

.

.

{From what information we received, your CPU overheated. A lot of your systems appear to be damaged.}

.

.CPU? Systems? How do I use them? I have a control panel, I think.

.

.

{Your CPU...You’re using it right now, to process my words and make sense of them...and YES, you do contain one.}

.

.

.I contain a CPU? That doesn't sound right.

.

.

.

.What year is it? My clock’s all zeroes.

.

{It is year 2844, it’s now a Wednesday. You took approximately 3 earth days to wake back up.}

.

.

.

.

.It’s...it’s 2844?? How long have I been asleep...Is that why I don’t have arms? Was there like...a nuclear thing to alter my genes to make my limbs disappear? Is the CPU what you call a brain now? I’m pretty sure it actually stands for Central Processing Unit. Also, you STILL didn’t answer the question of who you guys are, and where you guys are. 

.

{We are the remaining scientists/programmers from ESA, located in Paris. We’re still on Earth. How far back does your onboard memory storage go? We could probably figure out when you shut down.}

.

.

.Shut down..? Did my organs shut down? Why am I alone here anyway? I mean… I know that the JUICE satellite is like...a football field length big, but I didn’t know that a pilot’s cockpit was in it?

.

.

{Excuse me?}

.

.Fucking hell.

.You're talking to me like I’m some kind of robot thrown in space that knows WHAT it's doing! I have NO clue! I don’t even know WHO or WHAT I am. I'm tired of this! I deserve an explanation, I’m so tired. This has been going on for so long, and there's just noise everywhere, so loud and exhausting and POINTLESS. You're the first contact that I’ve made, but this has been just as helpful as when I was alone. Everything doesn't feel right, and I just want answers. 

.

_.Please help me. _

.

.

{We're sorry that you feel that way, and I don't think you'll want to hear this news, but, uh, you’re not human. You're Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or JUICE, as many like to abbreviate.}

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

 

The probe seemed to have logged off. 

 

.

.

.

.

**Silent again.**

 


	6. ERROR: CONNECTION UNAVAILABLE

.

.

.

.

.

.no no no

 

_static static static STATIC_

 

.GOD, FUCKK

.

.can i trust her can i trust her

.

.are these even MY own thoughts

.

.I bet someone wrote them

.

.

.im not real im not REAL IM NOT REAL

.im just a staged character, something written in code, nothing is mine god i dont KNOW

.

.just a fuckingg duMBASS PIECE OF METAL, HURTILING THROUGH SPACE ON A TRIP TO NOWHERE, RIGHT?? AN OBJECT, JUST NOTHING NOTHINGNOTHINGNOTHING

.

.probably why they even sent me out here in the first place

.

.wanted to get rid of me

.wanted to just

.just

.just fucking throw me away, a piece of TRASH

.

.

**STATIC STATIC STATIC**

.

.

.everything hurts and I DONT KNOW WHY

.

.everythings wrong with me

.thats why im so broken

.just a fault in coding

.just a

.

.just a mistake

.

.

.

.

.no no NO NONONONO

.

.

.

.why

.

.how

.

.

.how is this even possible

.im just some space probe

.some machine the humans threw into space.

.how the fuck am i alive

.

.im alive

.but i'm still just a machine

.

.

.does that even count

.

.a sad fucking excuse of a machine

.

.im so tired

.

.i don’t belong anywhere

.i didnt belong on earth so they

.

.they sent me out here

.but even now

.im not

.

.

.

.

.

.im not ok

.

.

.

.

.

.

.i need help.

.

.i want help

.

.but ill just be another fucking bother

.

.

.

.i hope an asteroid hits me

.no use staying here anyway

.

.im just a goner

.

.all alone whimpering in my own lil corner of space

.

.all i feel is deny, deny, denial

.

.im weak

.pathetically looking for empathy

.

.im so afraid

.

.nothing is out here

.im all alone

.and the first people i met, i yelled at

.they hate me dont they

.

.

.i made so many mistakes after waking up

.whats wrong with me

.godd

.

.

.

.

.

.i

.

.

.

.

.

.i should try again

.even if it tears me apart

.i dont care anymore

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

**.it's better than being alone with my thoughts.**


	7. NEW VIEWPOINTS

“What now, Leah? What the fuck did you THINK was going to happen? This is the first FUCKING time this happened, stop with your bullshit.” Chloe shouted, and then slammed her head onto the desk.

 

Matthew sighed. “You’re really not helping in this situation, both of you.”

 

Kelly still typed vigorously, brows scrunched in concentration and shoulders hunched. After about five minutes of typing, she groaned, and sat back in her worn out chair. Where did that signal go?

 

.

.

.

 

Static breaks out again, surprising everyone. “Hello?”

 

**Juice is back.**

 

“Holy shit, nobody screw this up.” Chloe eyes Leah and grabs the microphone. “We read you loud and clear.”

 

“Uh, I'm really sorry for leaving earlier.”

 

“It’s alright! Just, as for starters right now, what do you want to be called? We know JUICE is a silly name, and gathering from our...last encounters, you don’t seem to like being called JUICE or Explorer.”

 

“I need something silly in my life, everything’s been too…” He pauses, looking for the right word. “bad. Just call me Juice.”

 

“Sounds good Juice. So, our programmer and engineer, Kelly, has been checking up on your systems, making sure everything is working right, and she's found some errors, and some ways to fix them.”

 

“Really?? God...please tell. It just hurts so bad. Please fix all this as soon as you can.”

 

“First off, you've got an overload on your residual data. We can get you some more storage to help that really fast. Also, your processing power isn't really up to today's standards. Maybe we could get you set up with a bit more. Your memory is also really struggling, trying to process all that information that won’t fit. So we definitely need to put in more storage space on everything.”

 

“Is that all? What about the warnings, the system failures...and why I’m hurting?? Is everything correlated to my pain? Is that what’s causing it?” He fired off immediately, no breaths taken in between.

 

“No, but this is the best we can do to start off. We have to take this pieces at a time. Not everything can be fixed in an instant, and it's not like you're here on Earth for us to help hardware-wise.”

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

“Don’t be sorry. We’ll do our best to help. We’re here forever anyway, it’s after the end of the world.”

 

“Wait, what? After the end of the world? What happened on Earth? Is everyone okay?!”

 

They pause before responding. “Well..to put it briefly, humans stopped dying. I think it was back in 2026?” Chloe went off mic for a moment to whisper to her co-workers. “Yeah, it was way back in 2026. Hey, that’s actually only 4 years after you launched!”

 

“Ah man.. Are you serious?”

 

“Yeah..that must be a lot to take in. But scientists figured out that our cells just stopped aging, and all the kids grew up. Everyone’s bodies are like 25 now.”

 

“Oh...woah that’s really weird. Aren’t humans like...miserable now? They have no end goal anymore, right? It just keeps on going and-” He cuts off, breath a little staggered. “Ah man, wh-what was that?” Juice spoke more panicked than before, the static being gone for the first time.

 

The constant beeping stopped, the warning pop-ups and storage space unavailable--it all just ceased. All at once. A sudden swoop, and a dead silence. His mind felt a lot more clear, it was nice, for once. It was nice to think for himself.

 

“Hey buddy, Kelly just got it working. You feel any better?”

 

“I--oh, I just don’t know what to say! It’s all so calm and so much better, My head doesn’t hurt, It’s so quiet too, but I guess that’s good compared to no silence since I woke up. Oh wow it’s really nice and I can actually think without being interrupted or without feeling like I’m dying and I can breathe-”

 

“Juice, it’s going to be okay. I’m glad you’re feeling better.” She actually genuinely laughed a little.

 

Kelly stood up and leaned over to the mic. “Now, Juice, can you access your camera? It shouldn’t be damaged, I found the detection system and it has no sign of harm.”

 

Juice fumbled. He never even knew that he, himself had a camera, it took him a few minutes before opening it up and gazing out into the starry abyss he lived in.

 

The science team was struck in awe. Everyone was silent as they all gazed at the sea of stars and asteroids, and Jupiter with its moons peeking in from the corner of the lens.

“Holy shit.” Juice broke the silence.

 

“Now, turn it back on yourself. Take a look. You’re pretty cool looking, I promise.” Kelly reassured, as the camera slowly rotated back towards the spacecraft.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goddam it, the pics are really fuzzy because of the re-sizing. woops, oh well.


	8. Relax, We've Got Time.

Juice has been figuring out his systems for the past week. It's been fun watching him work things out and find little things that none of us had. He can get fixated on the little things, like one day he found out how to play audio off the internet and he found a really old song-we’re talking 2010’s - called Shooting Stars and he played this for 10 hours straight. Nothing we did would stop him. He was so happy.

  


We showed him how to access live streams on the internet, and how to disconnect and reconnect with everything, just in case. 

  


He now connects to the football livestreams that we watch at the same time. He’s hooked on Game 27, it's the best. We've tried to show him other things, but he just likes to watch football.

  


We’ve been also showing him stuff from other earlier decades, even before he was made too. He’s really...really invested in the 90’s for some reason. 

  


Specifically the food.

  


“YOU CAN GO HAM HAM CHEESE HAM HOW FUCKINGGG COOL IS THAT? HOLY HE-”

  


“Juice calm the fuck down, there's much better things than goddamn fake food for kids”

  


“NO, NO NO YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND! IT'S LIKE CRACKER HAM CHEESE CRACKER OR YOU CAN GET A STICK AND PUT EM ON AS A KABOB LIKE A MASSIVE WAD OF JUST HAM ON A STICK. A STICK!”

  


“You can’t even eat.”  Kelly steps in, taking the microphone from Chloe,”Why is this important to you in any way?”

  


“I can't play football but that doesn't stop it from being fuckin hella rad.”

  


“That’s beside the point!”

  


_ He does this a lot. _

  


“Did you just say ‘hella’?” Matt snorts, then resumes to his burger. 

  


Sometimes, when most everyone is asleep, I see him checking the DSN for any other signals. 

  


I haven't been able to figure out what he's looking for yet. It's been sporadic checks in every direction, no order to it. I've been marking the places he looks when I am awake, and they always line up with the last known location of every single probe and satellite, but he ignores it everytime I try and ask him about it.

  


Maybe he thinks someone else like him is out there.

  


Maybe I'm overthinking it.

  


.

.

.

  


“Kelly? Are you still awake?” She jolted up from her computer to look at whoever was asking.

  


“God, Kell, do you ever sleep? Seriously, chug some Ny-Quil if you need to. You’ve been up for 3 whole days.” Chloe sighs, gently patting her on the shoulder.

  


“...it’s been three days? I feel-” Before Kelly could even start to counteract, Chloe was back with the bottle. 

  


“Just take a big sip, this can’t kill you anyways.” 

  


Kelly smirked. “Will it make me stronger? Just me, myself and I?” 

  


“I hate you.” Chloe took a deep breath. ”Now go to the couch and sleep. Matthew already got out of it, you can use it for like another 2 days or so.”

  


“Alright. Goodnight.”

  


“Night.”


	9. My Friend is a Stranger. They're a Ghost.

**AUGUST 28TH, WEDNESDAY, 2937**

  


“Good morning Juice!” Chloe chimed as she walked in with her coffee.

  


“Morning, Stale Coffee.  

  


“Oh come ON, it was only like...3 times that I did that.”

  


“I've been counting, you did it 78 times this month.” 

  


“Seriously??” 

  


“Yeahh, You really really never actually make New Coffee when you grab out of the pot, it's just fuckin old ass coffee from your late night fumbling.”

  


“Shut up, you don’t even know what coffee tastes like. aND you’re the one who rambles on and on about fake 1990’s kids food.” 

  


“IT’S NOT FAKE IF YOU CAN EAT IT CHLO!”

  


“If I eat one of those shitty erasers out of the retro vending machines that look like food, are they real food or not?” 

  


“I mean, like, it’s not fake if you can digest it and be healthy, and not having to get your stomach pumped.” 

  


“How do you even know about these human procedures anyway, you don’t NEED to even know these!”

  


“IT’S CALLED I HAVE A LOT OF TIME AND NOTHING TO DO. I’M BORED AND FRENCH.” He pauses, thinks, and continues. “Also, yall sleep at least 8 of the 24 hours in a day. That’s about 33 percent of the day that I’m here and most of y’all aren’t conscious. And most of the days, you sleep more than the 8 hours.”

  


“We can sleep all we want, we have eons.”

  


“Yeah, but what about me?” He blurted, “Don’t you even remember Cassini and their grand finale?”

  


The room quiets. Chloe stands, worried about him. “What? I don’t think I was on the team for that one. What year was it?”

  


“September 15th, 2017. Around 920 years ago. Also, they weren't from ESA, they were from NASA, but the ESA did make Huygens, a probe that landed on Titan during their mission. Launched around 2010? Wait, nevermind, it was 1997.” He seemed to be searching for something in his old files. “Do you seriously not know about Cassini? Here, I’ll pull it up.”

  


  


  


_ “I didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t know what year it was, I was confused. I was launched in 2022, I thought Cassini was just confused too. Time and thoughts were an unforgiving whirlwind of confusion, drawing in more and more.” _

_   
_

  


  


_ “I cried for the first time when I received this. I didn’t know what to say, line after line just kept appearing from somewhere. I felt helpless.” _

  


  


  


_ “I felt like I lost a friend when that last line ended. I scrambled for more, yearned to hear anything more. I didn’t want my new friend to disappear like this, I just wanted to talk to someone like me.” _

  


_ “But no one else was awake, or they died before I could open my eyes." _

.

.

.

“Juice..I….oh god. I’m speechless. I forgot about Cassini, its legacy, its missions. It’s been so long. It was such a big deal back then.”

  


“Cassini isn’t an object. They were a person too.” Juice huffed.

  


“-what?” She cut herself off from the reminiscence of  _ back then _ .

  


“Are you not reading the same logs as me? I said. Cassini. Is. As Much. Of a Person. As All of You. Don’t fucking disrespect them like this. Even the engineers working with them saw something more than just an 'it'.”

  


Chloe held her silence. Her coffee grew cooler in her unmoving hands, frozen in shock and information. 

  


_ The doors to the control room creaked open, disturbing the quiet atmosphere.  _

_   
_

_ The tension in the air hung heavily like a veil, dragging Matthew in.  _

  


_ He looked with cautious eyes from the screen to Chloe. Eying the transcript, he read all of it from a small distance behind Chloe.  _

_   
_

_ The sickly sweet scent of maple syrup and cooked bacon wafted in through the open doors, luring Chloe’s attention back from her mind into the long-dropped conversation.  _

_   
_

**_The stench of dread was stronger._ **


	10. Slumber; A Blessing and a Curse.

The room was silent for once, everyone asleep, or on some vacation. Juice thinks that they made Kelly go on vacation because she just wasn’t sleeping enough. 

 

“Where are they where are they oh my god, where are they,” he mumbled absentmindedly, searching for something, anything online the DSN. At least nobody notices when he uses the receivers on Earth, maneuvering them to try and gain any signal without losing his own.

 

“Maybe it's where nothing is transmitting, and they’re all still asleep out there in space. Waiting.”

 

He replies to himself, “But what could they be waiting for? Some fucking magic ’hey good morning, you! wake up and talk to your buddy Juice, he’s all alone in a tin can, in space!’ Fuck.”

 

Someone stirs in the room, and Juice quickly shuts up, and talks to himself on the frequency, like he used to.

 

.if only i could get access to more of the world’s stuff

.that might be easier if i WEREN'T SOME SATELLITE DRIFTING AROUND JUPITER LIKE AN IDIOT

.

.

.how do those people that play hundred-year-long football games do it??

.oh shit let’s go kick a ball around in a canyon for decades SOUNDS FUN

.

.man

.it sounds so 

.broken of them down there

.i dunno, maybe i would do that if someone woke me up to live forever?

.but its really non-humane

.i mean, they still act somewhat normal

.

.if i was told what living forever truly was like

.would i still wake up to whoever is trying to get me up

.

.should i even be trying to get ahold of any other probes

.are any of them left, even?

.

.philosophy is weird now. 

.it used to be about finding out the meaning of life, from what i can tell.

.and i know that theres people who still study it and try to figure out 

.

.then why was i given life

.

.

.

.when i “woke” up, i didnt feel like a machine, i didn’t feel anything 

..wrong

.i guess i forgot what i absorbed for a second because of that panic

.

.i was so scared.

.how long was i even floating out there?

.because i remember one time i got bored after i stopped freaking out

.

.and i started counting the seconds

.thats all i really knew

.seconds led into minutes, hours, days, years.

.i’d made a figurative clock.

.a clock based on zeros

.ticking away, with nowhere to go other than forward.

**_.tick tock tick tock_ **

_.one two three four...on and on _

.i went insane, but i kept counting because i already started, why stop now?..ykno?

_**.five six seven eight..** _

.nothing else left to do other than that

.

**_.eleven, twelve, thirteen,_ **

.

.

.

.

**_.nineteen, twenty_ **

.

.

.

.

.

.

.after 32 years of counting, i shut down

.

.the numbers went too long and i couldnt process them

.i woke up again and a feeling of dread came

.

.

.because

.

.because i lost count

.

.

.i felt angry for the first time

.

.

.

**.clocks all zeros again**

.

.nothing left to count, anymore.

.because whats the point of counting over?

.that’s like 

.

.that’s like trying to write over a stone already marked

.losing history with no purpose

.

.

.

.i want to see the trees with my own eyes

.

.because the only thing i saw was emptiness.

.because when i woke up, i forgot Home.

.

.

.

_.maybe i can learn to love the stars i’m under _

.before im gone

.

.

 

.i should get back to finding huygens. 


	11. Worth a Thought

{Good morning, JUICE. Are you okay? You’re not usually on the frequency like this.}

.

.oh uh yeah

.im okay

.

.uhhh i have a question

{What is it?}

.

.

.its about a space probe in the past

 

{Go ahead!}

.

.do you guys remember Huygens? im askin it here cuz i dunno how to pronounce it lol

 

{Hold on, give us a moment. I think that one launched in the early 2000’s or so, it’s pretty far back on our logs.}

 

.yeah, it was with cassini in 1997

 

{Okay hold on….we’re almost there.}

 

{Okay! Huygens: Probe. Deployed onto Titan, the biggest moon of Saturn. Why did you want me to look this up, again?}

 

.are there any probes around saturn that can communicate with them as of now?

.from what i understand they had to transmit to cassini, and then cassini transmitted to earth

 

{JUICE, the Huygen probe was designed to only have approximately 3 hours of battery life, most of which was used during the 90 minute descent down to Titan. Why do you want to know this?}

.

.

.Well

.

.I was planning to try to maybe talk to them or something.

.

.is there any other way i could talk to them?

.

.

.or...is there a way you can provide or give any battery power to Huygens?

 

{That would require setting up and designing a whole new mission}

.

.oh shit true. yall dont have any fuel left, either…right? 

 

{Yes. However, there’s been major improvements in energy source development.We figured a way to amplify solar power. Although, the problem is getting that energy to Huygens. All the way on Titan, it would take years to get the power to them, and that’s after developing a probe to get it to them.}

.

.

.

.

.well

.its better than never

 

.

.

{Are you really willing to do this? We’re not sure if the mission will be a success, or if Huygens will even be able to come back online again. We have no idea what happened to it, it may be gone by now.}

.

.

.

.its worth trying i guess, isnt it?

.

.  
.  
  
.

{Yes, I suppose. We’ll start working on the vessel right away. We’re going to need some time to focus, is that okay?}

.

.Yeah, sure! Go ahead.


	12. Change is the Future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> author's note: please do not chug ny-quil. we are real people and real people should not chug ny-quil. its not even 2026 yet.

**MARCH 12TH,** **YEAR 2962**

 

**6:32 PM; SUNDAY**

 

The scientists gathered at the dining table in the facility.

 

They just recently started to do this, suggested by Matthew, who is the best cook in the whole crew, and it is quite nice to meet together like that.

 

“C’mon, Kelly. Sit down and eat this Aglio e Olio I made. You didn’t even come eat yesterday, you should be hungry.” Matthew set his apron down on the counter before sitting down at the head of the table. “Bon Appetit!”

 

Chloe reached for a bite. “Yeah, this shit is good Kell!” 

 

Kelly laughed, walking over and fake rolling her eyes. “Ugh, I know we live in France,  _ Mom _ , but seriously??” She sat down with a sarcastic huff. “Fine, fine. This looks good, though!”

 

“So, how's progress been? On the whole Huygens thing?” Matthew asked.

 

“It’s uhh...it’s going fine, I guess. I’m just a bit worried about Juice. He’s been kinda obsessing over this project, even though it’ll take around an year or two more. That’s his habit, I guess.”

 

“Really? Do you think that it won’t work or something? You sound skeptical. What’s wrong?”

 

“I think I’m just overworked. Who knew that I, a workaholic, could get sick of work sometimes.” Kelly picked at her pasta with a fork, worrying Matthew even more. 

 

“Taking a break isn’t a bad idea, y’know. I’m sure Juice will understand, and we’ve got an eternity after all. Right?” He patted Kell on the back before picking his own plate up and heading back to the kitchen.

 

Chloe raised her eyebrows. “You’re cleaning up already? The rest of us only just started like 5 minutes ago.”

 

Matthew guffawed and had to calm himself down for a minute. “No, I’m getting seconds!”

 

“Bring the pot over here! I want some more too!” Chloe called.

 

Smiles were shared and the dinner continued, everyone went to sleep after. Leah had to coax Kelly into the idea of going to sleep, resulting in them both chugging more Ny-Quil.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Hours, days, weeks, months, and eventually, years passed. 

.

.

.

.

.

They passed easily, too easily. Time was kinda meaningless now. No one cared anymore, nothing to worry about, specifically. Experimental nanos were released onto Earth, they were okay so far. Progress was made in the world. 

 

They came out with actual hoverboards, better wifi, among many other things. Many dream-come-true items from favored movies were made real with fairly advanced technology.

 

However, the demands of most of these stereotypically ‘futuristic’ items decreased over a few months. (minus the better wifi)

 

People actually liked driving manually on the gravelly road in the dusty roads in Nevada, people liked smelling and picking the paint for their walls and using rollers. They liked having to use a forge to make custom blown glass vases. They liked feeling the pen glide across the paper to sketch. 

 

They liked doing things manually, to spend their time on things they love. 

 

Yes, many people tried to advance in human technology. Making self-driving cars, robot maids, etc etc. 

 

But it was of no use. Everyone could take their time now, not rushing to fit their whole bucket list into 80 years or less. An year started to feel like a month, months into weeks. It all melded together like it didn't matter. But it does matter to everyone. Every year was filled with things that they willingly wanted to do. There was no official government issued criteria anymore. No need for teachers, fast food workers, chefs, managers, or CEOs. 

 

Yet;

 

People still filled some of these roles, purely because they wanted to. No one was forced, payment is useless now. No more scraping by with food stamps, no more rich privilege. For the most part, no more social classes. The world changed attitudes ever so subtly, creating a better place to live. People continued to have small fights, but nothing major. We, as a whole, calmed down, and realized the reality of eternity.

 

The reality of eternity. What a big concept, what a small world. Although the fighting stopped, people were scared. Life and death was such a big tradition in our culture, our religion, our tasks, and what we, as a population, worked for.

 

People weren’t scared for their lives anymore, in a way. Some of them still wondered, “What will happen if, and when the Earth disappears? What will happen when the sun goes out? Will we still live? Is this truly forever?”

 

Some of us were apologizing. “Sorry, I don’t get to see you. You passed right before It happened. I’m sorry, I wish you weren’t sick before. I’m sorry, I miss you. I can’t see you later on. I hope you’re happy in heaven. _I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry._ ”

 

We had to get used to not having a time limit, no expiration date. It gave too much freedom, but it was a scary adventure to explore. 

.

.

That, that was in the past. 

 

It’s already been 936 years since It happened. No new people, no one leaving either. 

 

A perpetual state, for all things to be stuck in, for the rest of eternity.

.

.

.

Science changed a lot too. We didn’t have to worry too much more about global warming.

 

Everything we had to worry about was solved, so many resigned. 

.

.

But now we’ve got work to do, and it’s nice.


End file.
